Bits of books that always get left out IV
by I-love-Gollum
Summary: How the FrodoSam rumor got started...


Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, because they belong to Tolkien, because he wrote LotR, because he is a creative genius.

Frodo had just finished unpacking his few things from his satchel. Even though they would not be in Rivendell for much longer he thought it would be best to clean it out. He shook the bag out, scattering bread crumbs all over the sparklingly clean elven floor and hurriedly attempted to sweep them up in his hands and looked for a waste bin. He settled by putting them back in his satchel. As he picked up the shirt and trousers he had been wearing since he left the shire he wondered whether he would be able to wash them before they left. From the immaculate look of the room he had been given, he wouldn't be surprised if elves were just naturally so clean they never needed to wash anything. Hobbits certainly weren't, he thought as the smell of his clothes wafted toward him. He felt slightly guilty about setting them on the neat white couch daintily embroidered with silver leaves.

He managed to climb onto the bed by scooting up a stool. The top of the mattress had to have been _at least_ three and a half feet above the floor. When he finally got up he collapsed. The sheets were shimmering white and gave Frodo the impression that they were made of some rare stone rather than cloth. The bed was so completely covered in decorative shams that Frodo had barely enough room to lie down, which is saying something for a hobbit on a bed made for an elf. He finally found a comfortable position lying sideways across the foot of the bed.

Just as he settled down he heard a knock at the door. He pretended not to hear and started to snore loudly. "Master Frodo!" called Sam's voice from the other side of the door. Frodo continued to snore. "Master Frodo, Gandalf told me to tell you that there's some sort of council meeting in fifteen minutes," he called again. "And I know you're not asleep, nobody snores that loudly, not even my old Gaffer," he added.

Frodo sighed and slid off the bed. "Ouch!" he cried as his sore feet thudded on the rug and a blister popped on the dazzlingly clean velvet. He walked to the door, reached up to the knob and pulled it open. Standing in the hallway was Sam, wearing a ridiculous garment decorated with dragonflies and butterflies that must have been a nightgown for an elf toddler. As Frodo burst out laughing, Sam defensively yelled, "I didn't have a choice, alright? They're washing all of my clothes, and this is the only thing they had that even came close to fitting me!" The hem was still trailing on the floor. "Anyway," he continued with a failed attempt at an air of dignity, "Gandalf says you have to be down for this meeting thing. I can show you where it is."

"Alright." Frodo wondered if Marry and Pippin were being forced to wear something similar and let out another chuckle. "Here, I have something you can wear." He handed Sam a spare change of clothes. "Let me just get my things." As Sam changed Frodo combed his hair and checked his breast pocket to make sure the ring was still there. It wasn't. He checked his pants pocket. Not there.

"Are you alright, master Frodo?" asked Sam seeing the disconcerted look on Frodo's face.

"Yes, I just…" He trailed off as he picked up his smelly trousers and rummaged though the pockets. "Just can't find…" He checked the breast pocket of the shirt and then picked up the whole pile and shook it out. "Must have misplaced…" he muttered sounding rather panicked.

"The ring! Oh no master Frodo, you haven't lost it?" cried Sam as Frodo tore his vest and cloak off of a chair and spilled the contents their pockets.

"I haven't lost it, Sam!" shouted Frodo. "I know it's in here somewhere!" he added, with more pleading in his voice than true conviction. It had to be here somewhere.

"Oh, what will Gandalf say?"

"Well don't just stand there, help me look for it!" said Frodo, shouting even louder this time. Sam gave a little jump at being yelled at, and dropped to the floor to look under the bed.

"Where did you put it last?" Sam asked emerging from under the bed.

"Well if I knew that, I wouldn't be looking for it, now would I?" Frodo began to unceremoniously throw aside the white and silver couch cushions that he had recently been so concerned about disturbing.

"I just thought-" Frodo shoved him aside, interrupting his pursuit of turning over shams, and began to knock the whole pile onto the floor. "You don't even remember where you had it last?"

"Look, Sam it's really small, alright? And anyway, I've been practically dying for the past few days, give me some slack!" Frodo flung aside his pile of clothes and turned out his satchel, once again littering the floor with bread crumbs.

"Give you some slack!" Sam scoffed, standing on a chair and turning over items on the desk. "This isn't just some little thing. From listening to Gandalf and Elrond talk, this ring is really important!"

"Don't you think I know that Sam?" Frodo climbed onto the bed to look through what was left of the shams and began to tear aside the covers. "If Gandalf had given it to you to keep instead of me, it would have been good and lost before we even left Hobbiton! You probably would have accidentally eaten it with a biscuit, with all the food you eat!"

"Take it back!" Sam yelled as he practically leapt up onto the bed and knocked Frodo over.

"What, touchy about your gluttonous appetite? Don't try to tell me you didn't eat at least half of Merry and Pip's and my share! Not to mention all those mushrooms you bothered to take the time and grab before hiding when those Black Riders were coming! And the tomatoes and bacon you decided to cook in the middle of the night and draw them right to us!" Frodo stopped talking, because the pressure on his neck as Sam tried to choke him was making it quite impossible to even breathe.

"Take it back!" Sam yelled again. Frodo grunted and grabbed Sam's wrists and wrenched his hands from his neck. He wrestled Sam's arm around his back and pinned him down, taking several deep breaths. "Take it back!" Sam yelled though a sham in his face as he struggled to get loose. They were making so much noise that they were quite oblivious to the knocking on the door.

Elrond walked down the hallway to Frodo's room. The Council of Elrond was scheduled to start minutes ago and the Halfling had not appeared. As he approached the room he heard shouting and dull thuds. When he got the door, he knocked. It appeared as though no one had heard, because the noises continued. He heard someone gasping for breath and a muffled shout. He opened the door to see the room was in complete disarray. The couch cushions were all over the floor, clothes were lying here and there, books were knocked off the desk, and the covers on the bed were all mussed up and shams had been scatted all across the room. In the middle of the bed he saw Frodo on top of Sam, who was muttering something into the bed. "Ahem." Frodo looked up and sprung off of Sam, who looked up and scrambled to his knees. His shirt was only buttoned half way.

"Mister Elrond sir!" Sam gasped.

"Ahem. I do not mean to intrude, but the meeting has started. The Council and the ring are all outside, ready to begin, but Gandalf said he would rather not start it without you," Elrond said to Frodo in a voice that implied "I can't imagine why." He continued, "I shall tell them that you'll be, er, late." And with that he shut the door on them. "Well that explains a lot," he muttered as he walked away down the hall.

Frodo looked at Sam guiltily. "So I suppose the ring was there the whole time. I suppose Gandalf must have taken it," he said with a sigh of relief.

"All's well that ends well, I suppose," said Sam.

"Look, Sam, I'm sorry I said those things. I didn't mean any of it."

"It's alright."

"I was just really panicked and upset and-"

"It's fine." Sam looked at the red marks where he had tried to strangle Frodo. "Sorry about trying to choke you."

"That's alright." Frodo looked at the door. "I feel awful about letting Elrond see us fighting."

"He must think us downright immature."

"Well, it was really immature of us. I'll be more careful from now on. I suppose it was irresponsible of me not to notice it was missing for so long, I just…"

"Well we'd better get down to the meeting. Elrond sounded a bit angry with us." Sam finished buttoning his borrowed shirt.

"Right. We'll clean this up later. Let's go."


End file.
